Going into this weekend's São Paulo Grand Prix, all indications are that the status quo at Ferrari will no longer suffice for Lewis Hamilton if the Scuderia's ambition to return their first drivers' F1 championship since 2007 is to be taken seriously.
This year's drivers' title is already decided with Kimi Antonelli triumphant at the last round in Mexico and Ferrari are already looking toward next season where they are hopeful of genuinely being in the mix against the Italian and Mercedes.
However, after Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc clashed at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the British driver clearly believes that a title tilt in 2027 might be at risk, as the team apparently vacillates on how it manages having two number one drivers, both determined to be the top dog around which Ferrari should coalesce.
In Mexico with Leclerc attempting to pass Hamilton, the move cost them both, Leclerc with a penalty and Hamilton in going wide and being passed by Max Verstappen who went on to win. The outcome denied Ferrari what would have been a likely victory and potentially a one-two. The team principal, Fred Vasseur, condemned the incident as demonstrating a lack of respect for the team and is expected to hold a crunch meeting with them both at Interlagos on Friday.
It was not the first time this season the two Ferrari drivers have been uncompromising with one another. At Zandvoort Hamilton was frustrated when, on a different tyre strategy, Leclerc did not pit when first instructed to do so by the team in order to let the British driver past. A race later at Monza, Hamilton went down the inside of Leclerc into the first chicane and was squeezed wide by his teammate into the gravel.
The notable difference after Mexico was Hamilton's reaction. Previously he has been politic in stating they would deal with the incidents behind closed doors – “offline” as he refers to it. After Mexico he publicly criticised Leclerc and before the race in Brazil he was more bullish, refusing to be silenced in his criticism and making his position clear.
“Naturally it's not so easy having someone like me come into a team because I'm very outspoken,” he said. “I push and push and push for so many changes and I'm going to be pushing for more and as long as I'm here that's how it's going to be. I'm here to win.”
That he is talking about it publicly is indicative of the seriousness of the situation. The team have no formal rules of engagement between the two and pointedly neither is considered the top driver in the way that Verstappen clearly is at Red Bull.
Last year with the team struggling it was irrelevant. This year the problem has been brought sharply into focus. With a title at stake in the future it could be the difference between winning and losing but this is far from a straightforward situation. Hamilton came to Ferrari on the back of enjoying de facto number one status at Mercedes, pretty much since Nico Rosberg retired after the 2016 season. Leclerc, who is no less competitive, has enjoyed similar pre-eminence at Ferrari, with whom he has forged a strong relationship since he joined in 2019 and was long the favoured choice as their expected next champion.
The complex demands and the fallout from letting them fight for dominance is far from new, as seen with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet. Hamilton also knows about it, not least after his acrimonious fight with Rosberg in 2016. The latter was such that Mercedes, having been at pains to allow their drivers to race, had to impose rules of engagement.
Vasseur has been painstaking so far in avoiding that scenario but he was left enormously frustrated after the incident in Mexico and knows how costly it could be.
His is a very delicate balancing act however. McLaren had a similar problem with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in 2024 and 2025 and their efforts to allow their drivers to race without favour but also in managing them to the team's advantage led to the adoption of their torturously complex “papaya rules” which were satisfying to neither drivers, fans, nor it appeared particularly edifying to the team itself. Notably however they did come out of it with the constructors' title in 2024 and the double in 2025, a result which will not be lost on Ferrari.
It has largely not been a problem for McLaren this season, with Norris enjoying a distinct advantage over his Australian teammate, of which Hamilton and Leclerc are aware. Both are determined to make themselves the focal point of the team; both are aware how important that is if the title is at stake.
Which has led to another fundamental problem facing Ferrari. By not intervening in the process, the trust between the pair seems to have been stretched to breaking point. Perhaps, it feels, within a whisker of becoming actively counter-productive from which a further, more damaging deterioration threatens.
As Hamilton appears to be now insisting, Ferrari must address the issue but nor can Leclerc be faulted for simply following his instincts as a competitor. Both drivers are committed to the team but both are as equally committed to their determination to win. Ambitions that match those of the Scuderia, which if they are to be met, they must surely now look to manage.
